Yogamona Blog

It was the 2nd of January 2011. I was in a taxi flying through the narrow back streets of Bali at some ungodly hour after midnight, going from Denpasar to Ubud on my way to a yoga retreat.

It wasn’t my first time travelling alone, I’d become used to it over the years after lengthy stints of singledom. It was my first yoga retreat though. I remember sitting in the back seat feeling part anxious, part excited about my 7 days in Ubud. I had been to Bali before, over a decade earlier with 10 girlfriends where the focus was on partying, lazing by the pool, swimming at the beach and shopping. This was to be a very different holiday.

It felt a little cliché - Eat, Pray, Love style but I didn’t care. I enjoyed Liz Gilbert’s story, her bravery for speaking her truth and listening to the whispers of her heart as she set off soul searching through Italy, India and Indonesia. I had gone to Bali with the intention of bringing in the New Year on a high, setting the year off on the right note. I wanted to treat myself. At this stage the concept of self-love and self-care was still relatively new to me. I was working in the hospital setting at the time, giving on a daily basis to others and this was just the R & R I needed. Read the full blog post here.